How to dose your mortar correctly?

Queru Latino «Oscutarium» Ator «Mortium», the Terme Morier First of all referred to the bricklayer depressionSo the name spread following its content.

A mortar is a mixture composed of a binder, aggregates and water. Masonry, the mortar is used as a connection, sealing or coating. To be more technical, a mortar is used as a glue.

The principle consists in establishing a link between the different elements of the masonry so that they form a single unified block.

A mixture made of binding, water and adjuvants can be called the water of coulis, barbootine or lime. The denomination varies according to the binder. Generally, the mixture has a consistency of pasta or mud.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the name of Malta collected all types of mixture with or without sand, earth or other materials with incineration or lime. To this mixture, a sufficient amount of water is added to be able to ruin it and use it.

In the countryside where there are almost no lime, The mortar consists only of land with water with water. Sometimes straw or chopped hay are added. This addition gives greater consistency to the mortar.

The different types of mortar

A mortar is obtained from a binder mixed with more or less fine sand and water. This process is known by the dawn of the time. Sometimes the sand is replaced from the ground, marble, lime, …

On distinguishing:

• The terrestrial mortar: Until the 17th century, most of the rural buildings were built in COB. It is a wooden frame whose interstices are full of clay soils mixed with hay or straw.
• Dead of fat lime: The calcination of limestone around 1000 ° C gives lime. Very pure or limestones that contain clay from 0.1 to 1% produce oily lime. In contact with the air, the lime of lime oily made made. It hardens on the surface but remains flexible inside the masonry. A fat lime mortar remains elastic and does not break.
• The hydraulic lime mortar: It is made with clay limestones and made even without any contact with the air. It is used in the traditional masonry of stones or bricks.
• The plaster mortar: To give a medium mortar, the plaster does not need any other material compared to water. Unfortunately, he cannot resist bad weather and humidity. Nowadays, this type of mortar is used only as an internal coating.
• Portland cement mortar: In October 1824, the «Ciment Portland» brand was created by Joseph Aspdin. This mortar is more resistant than lime mortars. It is waterproof. Its use must be limited only in the masonry of concrete blocks or concrete blocks. It tends to break under the action of temperature differences.
• Bastard bastard: It is a cement mortar and hydraulic lime. It allows you to have a concrete that breathes a little, without absorbing the water too much. Compared to the strong cement mortar, the bastard mortar has a great advantage. It does not break. Its sticky power has increased from the lime. It also serves for the fixing of masonry elements that require greater mechanical resistance.

The different types of binders used

Two types of binders are generally used in the production of mortars and concretches:

• Hydraulic binders: They consist of all natural hydraulic cements and lime. These elements form with water a pasta that takes and hardens from the air, in particular underwater.
• Burning air: These are fatty lime and lime of extinct air. Mixed with water, they form a pasta that takes and hardens in the open air. This hardening is obtained thanks to the carbon dioxide contained in the air.

Implementation of a cement mortar

Solid materials are mixed, homogeneous, dry. The mixture is made of a depression, a tray, a wheelbarrow, a concrettenière or on metal plates. Know that the mixture lacks efficiency if the aggregates are not dry.

By message, binders mixed with water form a fat pasta. This dough can be «blooded» when adding sand. It undergoes a significant retreat when hardening. The withdrawal depends on granulosity. It is less important for a mortar made with large wheat sand. With the use of fine sand, the phenomenon of withdrawal is amplified with the contribution of multiple connections and water.

The fluidity of the mortar is increased by an excessive water supply. But the more water there will be, the less the final mortar will be difficult. So it is always better to use the least possible water.

Once spoiled, the mortar should be used immediately. Proceeding the new diet of a mortar that has started to take is not formally recommended. When it can no longer be deformed under pressure from the thumb, the mortar has taken.

Dosage for the production of mortar

Generally, the dosage of the mortar is quite simple. To give it well, it is very common to perform a dosage of volume of 1 by 3. A wheelbarrow is mixed with three sand sands. Depending on the type of masonry in perspective (mount a concrete lock wall or make a screed on a concrete floor), this dosage can undergo a sensitive variation.

The following dosage of the volume also allows you to obtain a well -balanced mortar: 4 sand volumes are mixed with 1 volume of cement, added by 0.5 volume of water.

The dosage of weight is also another way to quantify the mixture. Usually the dosage is measured in kg of concrete per cubic metro of sand.

It is also possible to dose the mortar to quantity. To get a cube meter of mortar, it takes 400 kg of cement and 1,400 kg of sand.

Water, although in limited quantity, Take a very important place in the good performance of the mortar. The water used to dose the mortar should be clean, without organic and industrial waste.

As a rule, 550 standard sizes can be made. These allow you to climb up to 55 square meters of wall.

For better construction and also to save materials, adopt the following suggestions.

Suggestion n ° 1: To mount a brick wall, it is rather advantageous to use a bastard mortar instead of a traditional mortar because it is made by a mixture of cement and lime in equal proportions: 50 % of cement and 50 % lime.

Suggestion n ° 2: Sicchi di Malta ready for use exist on the market.

Nowadays, whether to mount a wall or perform a screed, you will always have to dose a mortar and use it.